Batgirl #1 Review

Writer: Hope Larson / Artist: Rafael Albuquerque / DC Comics A little background: I missed Brenden Fletcher’s run of Batgirl, a series I had been meaning to read – and still plan to – by a very fun comic book writer and generally good human. I found about the new Batgirl series shortly after a viewing of DC’s animated The Killing Joke, a train wreck 30 years in the making that abused and eroded Batgirl as an emotional gimmick based on a book I was never fond of to begin with. Those factors combined, and suffice it to say this is great timing for a new Batgirl comic to dive into, and here we are with Hope Larson and Rafael Albuquerque.

And Batgirl’s gone international. Babs is on a trip through Asia with her first stop being Japan, where she reunites with an old friend, and goes in search of an even older stranger. The comic has a light tone – refreshing after The Killing Joke – and focuses more on setting the tenor for Babs as a character than diving into the story plot. For someone admittedly not a longtime Batgirl reader, I appreciate it as a good jumping in point for those who know just enough but certainly not a ton. While the plot is getting ready to unfold, Batgirl adds a lot of fun niche elements to this book. Babs and her friend Kai are reunited in Japan, which is a great point of interest for those who enjoy Japanese culture; we look to be exploring different fighting styles and MMA with more depth than we might expect from an action comic; and it’s an international…